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Techeetah touching glory

After both Techeetah and their lead driver Jean-Éric Vergne finished 5th in the squad’s debut campaign in Season 3, they hoped to make a step forward in Season 4.

However, not many people would have expected the Chinese team to take quite as big a step forward as they did – with Vergne taking the Drivers’ Championship crown in Season 4, and the team finishing a close runner-up to Audi in the Teams’ Championship race by just two points.

What’s more, Techeetah – a Renault customer team – beat the works Renault squad by over 100 points in the standings, getting far more out of the Renault Z.E. 17 powertrain than e.dams could manage.

TECHEETAH’s 2017-18 ABB FIA Formula E Statistics:

Wins: 4

Podiums (not including wins): 4

Poles: 4

Fastest Laps: 1 (Lotterer in Zürich)

Championship Points: 262

Constructors’ Championship: 2nd

Techeetah retained Vergne – who won the final race of Season 3 in Montreal – for Season 4, and signed three-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner André Lotterer to partner him.

Vergne had a dream of a season – winning four times and taking two further podiums on his way to clinching the Drivers’ Championship with one race to spare. He also took four poles as he consistently managed to get everything he could out of his car.

Lotterer had an rollercoaster of a season, taking two podiums but also being involved in several incidents. He finished eighth in the standings in his debut campaign in the all-electric series.

The team’s best race of the season was, without question, Santiago – where Vergne won ahead of Lotterer to clinch the first 1-2 in Formula E history.

The race wasn’t without its nervy moments for the team, however, with the drivers making contact on their way to clinching the historic 1-2 for the squad.

 

Jean-Éric Vergne

Wins: 4

Poles: 4

Podiums (not including wins): 2

Drivers’ Championship: 1st (198 points)

In his first three seasons in Formula E, Vergne was the ultimate “nearly man”, as he came so close to winning his maiden race on so many occasions.

Finally in Montreal at the end of Season 3, Vergne took that long-awaited first win – and he obviously liked how it felt, as he followed that up with four wins and the Drivers’ Championship in Season 4.

Vergne has always been a quick driver, but in Season 4 he managed to put together a consistent campaign where he showed not only speed, but also maturity as he won the races he was able to win, while still scoring points in the races in which he didn’t quite have winning pace or where he had issues.

In fact, he scored points in all 12 races – his personal low-point being tenth place in a Zürich ePrix that saw title rivals Lucas di Grassi and Sam Bird gain ground on him.

The way he bounced back from that disappointment at the final weekend in New York summed up his season – he recovered from poor qualifying on Saturday to clinch the title with a fifth place in the race, before taking his fourth win of the season on Sunday to put a cherry atop his season.


André Lotterer

Wins: 0

Podiums: 2

Fastest Laps: 1 (Zürich ePrix)

Best Finish: 2nd (Santiago ePrix)

Drivers’ Championship: 8th (64 points)

Lotterer may be a motorsport veteran, but he was new to Formula E – and it showed in the first weekend in Hong Kong as he scored no points and was penalised several times.

He also failed to score in Marrakesh, before completely flipping the form book on its head in Santiago as he finished as runner-up behind Vergne following a nervy race that saw the two Techeetah cars touching.

Two more non-scores followed in Mexico and Uruguay before he finished the season with six points-scoring finishes in a row, the highlight of those being third in Rome. He also scored fastest lap in Zürich.

Laurence Thorn

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